Key Memories
by Cloudy Luminosity
Summary: On her way back home for her mission, Bambi recalls some key memories from when she was growing up. [Short story that takes place between chapters 23 and 24 of The Fawn. Part of the Beginnings prequel series.]
1. Pensive

It was a long flight back to the United States – thirteen hours. Bambi was lucky enough to get a window seat for the duration of the flight, making it slightly more bearable. Poor Matt was stuck between her and a very talkative old man who spoke bitterly of everything wrong with the world and its youngest generation. Five hours into the flight he finally decided to sleep, much to the relief of the teens next to him.

Matt leaned back in his seat as he uttered a sigh. "If I ever hear 'weapons of mass destruction' again, it'll be too soon."

The brunette beside him chuckled quietly as she nodded in agreement.

He smiled at her as he made himself comfortable in his seat and whispered, "I'm gonna get some shut eye. I'll see you in the morning."

"Good night," she wished him with a soft smile.

Another hour passed as Bambi quietly kept to herself. Despite her exhaustion, her mind was racing. This would be the first time she stepped foot in her hometown in three years, but it wasn't for the reason she had hoped. She was here strictly on business to protect herself and the people she cared about.

As she gazed out the window and watched the clouds in the night sky, her mind wandered to her childhood friends. She last spoke to them months ago, and only to cut off communication with them. She knew that they were both going to universities on opposite sides of the nation, though only because she offered to pay their tuitions.

The young woman sighed as she looked up at the stars longingly. She wished that she could contact them and see how they were doing. She knew that it was better to keep her distance, but she missed her friends dearly.

A small smile rose to her lips as old memories began to resurface in her mind.


	2. Melinda

The sun was just rising on that bright autumn day so many years ago. Amy could hardly contain her excitement as she bounced up and down, ready to start her first ever day of school.

Her caretaker smiled as she put her hands on the little girl's shoulders. "Hold still, Amy. I can't tie your bow if you keep moving around."

Amelia smiled and looked down sheepishly. "Sorry, Carol."

The young woman quickly finished tying the bow in Amy's hair before picking her up so she could see herself in the mirror.

"Oof, you're getting heavy," she commented as she let the child's feet rest on the sink. "Aren't you so pretty today, my little Bambi?"

A giggle escaped the girl's lips as she looked over herself. She was wearing a new dress that Carol had gotten her for the first day, and her pink bow matched it nicely. Amelia put a finger to her lips as she pensively looked at her caretaker in the mirror. Her curly brown hair looked awfully plain.

"Carol, you need a bow too!"

The woman laughed as she put the girl down on the floor again. "We'll do that later, kiddo. You don't want to be late, do you?"

Amy gasped and ran to her room to retrieve her backpack and lunch box. Carol trailed after the girl before taking her hand and leading her out to the bus stop with the other children in the neighborhood. The orphan smiled brightly and waved to her caretaker as she excitedly boarded the bus.

~o~

The first few hours of the day went without a hitch and it was now time for lunch. Amelia was sitting with other kids from her class as they discussed their lunches.

"My mommy made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich," one boy proudly boasted.

"Mine gave me soup!" a girl chimed in.

Another little girl showed off her tuna sandwich. "My daddy made me this!"

The boy next to Amy peeked over at her lunchbox. "Who made your sandwich, Amy?"

She smiled brightly. "Carol did!"

"Carol?" a girl leered in disgust. "Who's Carol?"

Amelia tilted her head. "She's Carol…? She takes care of me."

"Is she your sister?"

She frowned. "No, I don't have a sister."

"Is she your mommy?"

She shook her head. "I don't have one of those either."

The boy in the corner pointed and screamed, "You weirdo! Everybody has one."

The brunette furrowed her eyebrows as tears began to well up in her eyes. "I don't."

"Weirdo! Weirdo!" he teased.

Tears poured down Amelia's cheeks as her classmates gave her funny looks. The teacher rushed over as the boy continued to tease the orphan. She took the boy into the corner to scold him before sending him into time-out.

~o~

Amelia sat by herself when recess came around, none of the children willing to talk to someone with such an apparently unusual home situation – or at least, that's what she thought was happening.

"Hi!"

She looked up to see another girl sitting in front of her with a bright smile on her face.

"I like your bow," she told Amelia.

The brunette sniffled and thanked her before taking in her appearance. She had pretty blue eyes, and her face was covered in freckles – just like Carol. Her red hair was tied into two pigtails on the sides of her head.

"My name's Melinda. What's yours?"

The orphan smiled at her. "It's Amy."

Melinda nodded. "Do you wanna play jump rope, Amy?"

"Sure!"

Amelia stood and began to follow her to the other side of the playground when the boy who made fun of her earlier approached them.

He narrowed his eyes at the brunette as he growled, "You got me in trouble!"

Melinda put her hands on her hips. "You were being a meanie!"

He clenched his fists and pushed her to the ground, making her cry. Amelia's eyes widened as anger engulfed her entire being. She screamed as everything went red.

The girl was later informed that she tackled the boy to the ground and bit him.

After a long meeting with the three children, their parents, Carol, and the Principal, they were all sent home early. Amelia pouted as her caretaker strapped her into the car seat. It wasn't right that he was able to be so mean and push people around like that. Once the woman started the car, the orphan nodded to herself.

"Carol, I want to learn how to fight."

She glanced back at the child, worry clear on her face. "Amy, you can't go around fighting people you don't like."

"I just want to protect people who are being picked on," she explained.

Carol smiled slightly and nodded. "Tell you what, Bambi. I'll sign you up for self-defense lessons when we get back. Does that sound good?"

She grinned. "Yes!"


	3. Justice

Three years had passed and the girls became close friends. It wouldn't be long before their little duo would become a trio.

The sun shined brightly above the schoolyard as the children played outside for recess. Amelia was sitting in the corner with Melinda as she fiddled around with a lock that the redhead had brought with her.

"I saw this in a magazine once," Amy told her as she pulled a barrette from her hair and stuck one of the ends into the key hole.

She followed the instructions from that old article in her mind as she twisted and jiggled the barrette until the lock popped open. The orphan grinned triumphantly as she looked up at her friend, expecting her to be just as excited. Instead, the redhead was looking behind her with a frown.

Amelia followed her gaze to see a group of older boys pushing around the new kid in their class. He was short for their age and his black hair was shaped into a bowl cut. Tears streamed down his face as the bullies hurled insults at him and pushed him around their small circle.

The brunette narrowed her eyes at the group as she addressed Melinda. "Watch my stuff. I'll be right back."

Worry was clear in her voice as she hesitantly answered, "Okay."

Amy stood from her spot on the ground and stalked over to the group. "Hey, you!"

The older boys stopped pushing the new kid around, though one of them kept a tight grip on his shoulders as the leader turned to face the newcomer.

He was much larger than she was, folding his arms as he narrowed his eyes menacingly. "What do you want, kid?"

"You better stop picking on him or else," she growled as she glared him down.

He laughed. "Or else what? You're just a little girl."

Amelia smirked. "Why don't you come and find out, punk."

His eyebrow twitched before he ran at her with full force, aiming his fist at her face. Just before it landed, she leaned and sidestepped the attack, leaving the older boy to tumble to the ground with his momentum. He stood up and glared at her before a feeble attempt at a battle cry escaped his lips and he rushed her again. She spun out of the way, stopping when her back met his.

Amy stuck to the bully like glue. If he turned, she did too.

He wildly whipped around and waved his fists in attempt to hit her, but she was the more agile one. She quickly tired him out as she kept up this game. When it no longer amused her, she grabbed his arm and spun him around a few times before letting go, sending him flying into a heap on the ground.

The bully's two followers looked on with eyes wide before the tall one shoved the new kid to the ground and ran at Amelia. The chubby one mirrored his actions, but came at her from the other side. She ducked under the tall boy's swinging fist before sweeping her leg under his, taking him down. As she jumped back up, a fist crashed into her face, sending her flying back.

She tried to get up quickly, but the boy came up from behind her and started pulling on her hair. She snarled as she reached behind her and latched onto his shirt before flipping him onto his back in front of her.

The bullies were all on the ground around the girl, groaning in pain.

The first to attack her turned beet red as he turned and yelled, "I hate you Amelia!"

"I'm not Amelia." She put her hands on her hips as she puffed out her chest and proclaimed, "Today I am Justice!"

Unfortunately, she didn't consider that her outburst would cause the teachers to look over and see three boys on the ground, one cowering in the background, and Amy standing triumphantly in the middle of it all.

Needless to say, all five of them were escorted to the Principal's office.

~o~

After a stern talking-to from the Principal, Amelia found herself sitting outside his office with the new kid. He was quietly looking down at his feet for a while before looking up at her.

"Thank you for helping me."

The brunette beamed at him. "It's no problem. What were they picking on you for anyway?"

The boy frowned as he looked down again. "My accent, and my hair, and my name…"

She frowned as he began to tremble. "Hey, don't cry. Those guys are just a bunch of dumb jerks. Everybody knows that accents are cool. Where are you from anyway?"

He sniffled as he told her, "Japan."

"Woah, that's so cool!"

He looked up at her. "It is?"

"Yeah, what's your name?"

The boy hesitated for a moment before telling her, "My name is Kato Nakamura."

"Cool!" The orphan grabbed his hand and shook it. "It's nice to meet you, Kato. My name is Amelia Stein." As she let go of his hand, she grinned. "Hey, I have a great idea! I'll teach you self-defense and be your bodyguard while you're learning if you teach me Japanese."

He pursed his lips for a moment. "But, I would still owe you one more favor since you are doing two things for me. What else do you want me to do?"

She laughed. "Hey, it's just for fun. If you think of something cool we'll go with that, but learning Japanese is good enough for me."

He smiled graciously at her.


	4. Security

It had been about a year since Kato had become friends with Amelia and Melinda, though he was still shy around both of them. He did finally get the courage to tell his parents that he wants getting picked on for his bowl cut. Much to his surprise – and relief – they took it well and let him get a different hair cut after that.

Amelia saw him often to stick to the deal they made during their first meeting. He taught her Japanese in exchange for her teaching him self-defense and protecting him in school. It wasn't all work and no play, though. Amy and Melinda often spent time with the boy, forming what would become a tight-knit friendship.

The three of them went to Kato's house after school today to play together, but Mother Nature had other ideas. Melinda pouted as she pressed her face against the window, watching the rain as it pelted the Earth below.

"Aw, I wanted to play hopscotch," she whined.

There was a short silence before Kato suggested, "We could play a game on the computer."

The girls smiled excitedly at the idea as they followed him to the family computer in another room. Kato dragged two chairs over to the desk before sitting in the middle and powering it on. He opened the game and explained the mechanics. It was a simple side scrolling game, but the trio spent an hour playing it.

Amelia pouted as the screen went black. "Aw, that's it?"

"For now," Kato told her as he exited out of the game. "I want to add a bunch more levels, maybe an underwater one if I can figure it out."

Melinda jumped up from her seat. "Wow, you made that?!"

He smiled nervously and nodded.

"That's so cool! Can you teach us?" Amy asked.

"Sure." He clicked around to another program, showing them the code that ran the game.

The boy explained each of the commands and how they all need to be organized. Melinda quickly became lost in the technical jargon, but Amelia was wide-eyed as she absorbed every word like a sponge.

~o~

She started cutting down the time he used to teach her Japanese, substituting it with lessons in programming. It didn't take long before the brunette caught up with Kato's skill level, but she found that making games wasn't as satisfying as playing them. Her friend explained that there are lots of other uses for coding before showing her the wonders of CSS, HTML, and Java.

As he expected, she was quick to master these as well. Amy started neglecting her schoolwork in favor of reading through coding manuals. It was in one of those manuals that she discovered how computer security worked. She found herself obsessing over the minutia of the field – it was the ultimate puzzle.

Little did she realize what this knowledge would be setting her up for in the future.


	5. Taunt

Several years had passed since Amelia learned how to code. She eventually got bored and started hacking around the school's computers, going higher and higher in the rankings. Soon even this wasn't enough for her. Cruel and corrupt companies were running rampant, but no one seemed to be doing anything about it. The more she heard about it, the more she set her sights on them.

Amy became the Robin Hood Hacker at the age of thirteen. She targeted those corrupt companies, outing them to the public and drawing more attention to the cases. As this brought investigators to the companies, she found herself becoming more paranoid. It was a year into her reign when her game of cat and mouse began with the world's number one detective.

~o~

It was a calm autumn night as the Robin Hood Hacker sat in her room in the orphanage, only the screens of her computer lighting the way. She considered herself lucky for her situation. Since she was one of the oldest kids still there, she was given her own room.

Amelia cast a backward glance to make sure that the door was locked before getting down to business. The past few weeks were spent gathering information on her next target. Lando Electronics would be her highest profile target yet, just barely beating the Yotsuba Corporation. Naturally, they would have high security on their website, so she was being very cautious with this one. Obviously, their security wasn't good enough to keep her out, as she had almost all the pieces ready.

A small window popped up into her field of vision. She glanced to it before a grand smile found its way her lips.

It was finally back.

After hacking into Yotsuba a few months ago, the young teen began to wonder if the FBI were onto her or not. Just to be safe, she sent a virus into the Pentagon that would slowly and carefully crawl through all the files they had that were related to Robin Hood. After clicking through everything it brought back to her, it seemed that the FBIs profile of her was completely incorrect.

Satisfied with fooling the supposedly amazing agency, Robin Hood went back to her files on Lando Electronics. After a month of preparing and siphoning the CEO's money away, she was finally ready to hack into their website and out them to the public. Fingers ready and a predatory gleam in her eyes, she went to work on their security.

~o~

Amy made sure to wake up early the next morning, despite the fact that it was a Saturday. After getting dressed, she rushed downstairs to the kitchen to grab herself a quick breakfast. She tried to avoid eye contact with anyone so she could make it back to her room without incident, but luck did not seem to be on her side that day.

As the brunette grabbed her utensils and turned to run, her caretaker called out to her.

The hacker tensed before turning to face her. She was a tall woman in her mid-thirties. Her curly brown hair was haphazardly tied behind her head.

"Why don't you eat with me today?" she offered as she raised her eyebrows, her forehead crinkled in worry.

Amelia pouted as she snapped, "Why don't you just leave me alone?!"

The rowdy triplets rushed the kitchen and ran up to her, leaving the teen time to stomp back to her room.

Carol sighed. "Bambi…"

Once back in her room Amy locked the door and placed her breakfast on her desk. She grabbed the remote and turned on the tiny television in the corner of her room as she began to munch away. After checking the time, she smiled. The media should have gotten word of her most recent hack by now. The teen flipped to her local news station only to find that she was right.

Her lips curled into a Cheshire smile as she listened to the anchors describe the messages she left on the Lando Electronics website. The brunette powered her computer on as she finished eating and listened to the broadcast.

"In light of the Robin Hood Hacker's recent attacks, we were told to stream a video from the famous detective L," the news anchor explained.

Amelia furrowed her eyebrows as she turned to face the screens again. _L? Why does that name seem so familiar?_

The view of the news room was replaced with an Old English 'L' as a poorly scrambled voice began to speak. "This broadcast is playing simultaneously in every media station around the world. I am here to announce that I am now working on the case of the Robin Hood Hacker, and I can assure you that I will have him behind bars to pay for his crimes within a year."

The teen narrowed her eyes at the screen. _Who the Hell does this guy think he is?_

L continued. "Robin Hood, what you're doing is wrong, and I will bring you to justice."

"We'll see about that," she growled as her fingers rushed across her keyboard, launching Peekaboo.

Robin Hood grinned maniacally as the TV screen was replaced with her symbol, shutting L down.

"You letting those companies get away with hurting those people is what's wrong," her digital voice read out from the television. "You're behind on the times, L. If you're really so great, you would have done the same thing I did. I am justice, not you. If you're so confident, come and get me. I dare you."

With a few strokes of the keyboard, she took the broadcast off the air.

Amy raised an eyebrow at what was left behind. It wasn't the station's usual apology for technical difficulties. Instead, there were instructions to change to a channel that she thought the cable company had dropped a while ago. She warily picked up the remote and followed the directions. Her eyes went wide as she saw what greeted her.

L's symbol was on this channel as he spoke. "I'm surprised that you took the bait so quickly, Robin Hood. You are indeed a very skilled hacker."

She furrowed her eyebrows as she clenched her teeth. _That son of a bitch!_

"I'll give you a hint. That video wasn't being broadcast internationally, but one region at a time. I already went through the rest of the continent, but I finally found you," he teased. "You're in Iowa in the United States."

A cold sweat dripped down the back of her neck as her lips curled into a snarl.

"I'll take your challenge, Robin Hood, but now I'll catch you within six months," he taunted. "Oh, by the way, the other station is back up now."

With that, the channel returned to its usual static.

Amelia's eyebrow twitched as she threw the remote at the wall in a fit of rage. _I can't believe I was so stupid!_


End file.
